Why chiropractic works, when it works.
Jul 24th, 2007 by Norman
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Why chiropractic works, when it works.
The first factor in back and neck pain and chiropractic is that (articular) joints are exquisitely sensitive – (note, in wrestling, if you want to subdue someone, you compromise one of there joints). If a joint is a little bit out of place there will likely be pain or discomfort. (Have you ever put a finger joint out of place miss-catching a ball? It can be agony until someone pulls on the finger to allow it to move back into place.)
A second factor: the spinal nerves leave the spinal column right next to the spinal joints, and the irritation at a miss-placed spinal joint can often “facilitate” nervous irritation at that spinal level. A joint problem can therefore sometimes adversely affect organ function, tissue function.
Chiropractic adjustments, when they cause the joint to “crack”, gap the joint, distract the joint (just like pulling on that out-of-joint finger) and allow it to reposition itself. (See the article on the “cracking joints”.)
I practice a type of chiropractic called the Gonstead Technique where instead of rotating the neck, the back, the vertebra, we nudge the vertebra forward. Dr. Gonstead’s doctrine, his discover, is that when the spine fails, a vertebra (and those above it, with it) falls backwards off of its disc. So we nudge the vertebra forward back into place. (See my article on “sagittal adjustments“)
Chiropractic works, when it works, because we are puttingthe vertebra, or allowing the vertebra to put itself, back into place.
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Coming soon:
- why chiropractic doesn’t work, when it doesn’t work.
- why joints are exquisitely sensitive
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